The Council's Ruling
by evieeden
Summary: Leah finally swallows her pride and asks the Council for help. Advent story written for 19th December.


**Happy 19****th**** December. So today's offering is hopefully a lot happier than yesterday's, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Massive thanks go to idealskeptic for betaing this for me. If I owned Twilight, I don't think it would've ended the way it did.**

**The Council's Ruling**

Leah sat in front of the council and held her head high.

They had just finished a meeting with the pack and had requested that she stay back so they could speak with her.

She knew what this was about, of course. After all, she was the one who had approached them two weeks ago, having finally reached the end of her tether.

The rest of the pack had filtered out, shooting her curious looks as they went. All except Seth, who had squeezed her shoulder in support before leaving. He knew exactly what this was about, had encouraged her to take the issue to the council for guidance, after finding her crying in her room. She saw Sam shoot her brother a narrowed-eyed glance and wondered if he'd order Seth to tell him what was going on. So far, her brother had done a good job of keeping his thoughts to himself, but she knew that the second people started picking at your secrets, it was hard to not think about them.

Billy Black cleared his throat.

"Leah Clearwater, we have requested your presence here today to address the issue you set before us a fortnight ago – your imprinting on Isabella Swan."

Faint red marks marred Old Quil's cheeks and Leah felt a vague sense of satisfaction that she wasn't the only one embarrassed by this turn of events.

Billy continued. "You imprinted on Bella over six months ago and yet until now have denied the presence of the imprint, correct?"

"Yes," she admitted.

Her mother clasped her hands nervously in front of her.

"Can you explain why that is?"

Leah sighed heavily, the full weight of the situation finally coming down onto her shoulders. She should've known that she couldn't hide from this forever, but she had hoped that by ignoring her wolf's instincts, she could make her faulty imprint go away. It was just so typical of the situation – a damaged imprint for the wolf that shouldn't exist.

"You all know that imprinting has screwed me over in the past." All three council members nodded thoughtfully. "I never wanted it to happen to me, regardless of who the person was," she tried to explain. "But Bella Swan? I'm not gay, so I couldn't see how a female imprint was ever going to work for me. Plus, you of all people should know, Billy, that Bella and Jake are in love with each other. I don't want to come between that. I don't even think Jake would let me and I'm not about to go head to head with my Alpha over some girl."

"That girl is your imprint, Leah," Old Quil interjected. "She was handpicked by the gods for you. You'd do well to bear that in mind before speak about her like that in the future."

Suitably chastened, Leah lowered her head.

"May we ask what changed your mind about rejecting the imprint?" Billy took over the questioning again.

"I haven't changed my mind," Leah was quick to reply. "I still don't want this imprint, but lately it's like my wolf had been demanding that I get closer to her. So far it's just been satisfied with hanging around her at bonfires and pack meetings, but lately that hasn't been enough."

Billy, Quil and her mother immediately huddled together at her answer, whispering to each other about the possibility of the wolf inside her forcing the imprint issue. With a quick nod to each other, they all sat back and once again turned their attention to Leah.

"It would be wise perhaps to listen to your wolf," Old Quil stated, not unkindly. "It seems that most of your pack are still learning to integrate the man's needs with the wolf's. It would be remiss of us not to assist you all with this in the future."

Leah nodded. She knew that this probably meant they would all be sent away on a spirit walk at some point to become at one with their wolves, but for the moment, she only wanted to know how they planned to get her wolf to shut up about Bella Swan.

"With regards to your imprint on Miss Swan, it's possible that this is part of a higher plan," the old man continued.

Leah frowned. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Leah!" her mother admonished. "Mind your language."

The younger woman looked down. "Sorry," she muttered.

Billy cleared his throat. "From the information you provided us with, we believe that your imprint with Bella resulted as a consequence of your wolf's natural reaction to Jacob."

"Huh?" That made absolutely no sense to her. She shot a quick glance towards Sue, who nodded encouragingly.

"Leah, have you never wondered why you were not imprinted on by Samuel Uley when you were together?" Quil asked.

Leah was completely taken aback and a little hurt by her rejection being brought up again.

"I don't like to think about it," she bit out.

"Of course," the old man rushed to reassure her. "But what I meant to say by that is that within a typical pack structure, your wolf, the only female, would have been paired with the most dominant male wolf, the Alpha in this case."

Leah shook her head. "But it didn't happen. Sam was the Alpha and he imprinted on Emily instead."

"Exactly!" Old Quil sat back with a satisfied look on his face as if she had just solved some riddle.

"I don't get it."

Old Quil frowned.

"Leah, honey." Her mother took over the explanation. "We think that the reason Sam didn't imprint on you was because he was never meant to be Alpha. That position was always reserved for Jacob when he phased." Sue's eyes quickly darted over to Billy and then back to Leah again. "As Sam was never the true Alpha, his wolf was not dominant enough to pair with yours, therefore another suitable mate had to be acquired for him. The genes in our family are obviously strong enough to carry the next generation of wolves, and so next to you, it could be argued that Emily was the next suitable female."

Leah frowned. "Okay. So what does that mean for me exactly?"

Sue grimaced. "Well, this is where it gets slightly complicated."

Leah fought the urge to say something sarcastic then, but she didn't really feel like being chided by her mom in front of the rest of the council again.

"Traditionally, what this would mean is that you and Jacob are meant to be paired together given the dominance of both of your wolves."

"Traditionally?"

At this point, Billy took over again. "Yes. As the Alpha male and female, it can be assumed that your wolves were ideal partners for each other. However, as the pack's Alpha, Jake is not capable of imprinting upon anyone. His choice of...companion...is his own, and he has chosen Bella. He loves Bella."

Leah bit her tongue at that. She was here for help and she was sure that the council wouldn't appreciate any sarcastic remarks, especially about the pack's golden boy.

Billy shot her a look that made Leah think that he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Anyway," he continued, "we have come to an agreement that the gods recognised that an Alpha pairing would not be possible given these circumstances, so they have pulled you and Jacob together in the only way they could see possible. They have gifted you Isabella Swan as your imprint."

Leah didn't think her eyes could get any wider.

She looked at each of the council members. Old Quil had his eyes closed, his hands steepled together, as if he were deep in thought. From the expression on his face, she couldn't tell what he thought about this situation. Billy had streaks of dark red high on his cheeks. It couldn't have been easy for him, telling Leah all this, especially as it involved his son as well.

Her mother's hands were clenched together anxiously and when Leah looked at her, Sue forced a wobbly, encouraging smile onto her face. Leah fought to find something to say.

"So the gods have pimped Bella out just so Jake and I get along? Is that what you're saying?"

All three council members' jaws dropped and Leah blushed at the crude words that she had just blurted out.

"I didn't mean that."

"Yes, you did," Old Quil stated archly. "And it's understandable that you would see it that way, although I'm not certain that the gods would ever refer to their actions as 'pimping'." He wrinkled his nose up at the term. "But yes, you are correct. We feel that your imprint on Isabella Swan and young Jacob's pre-existing feelings for the girl will draw the three of you together. It's...somewhat unconventional perhaps, but it is the god's will, and so it will be accepted."

Leah thought about what he had just said, turning it over in her mind.

Her and Bella. Jacob and Bella. Her and Jacob and Bella.

"No."

"Leah?" Her mother frowned.

"No. This isn't going to happen."

"You cannot deny your fate," Old Quil cautioned her.

"Well, I am," she retorted. "This is ridiculous! In fact, it's beyond ridiculous. It's fucking insane!"

"It's the only explanation," Billy said carefully. "We've discussed and researched this situation carefully and this is the only theory that makes any sense."

"Bullshit!"

Leah shot up out of her chair and kicked back at it, sending it crashing into the wall behind her.

"This is all bullshit! I came to you for help! Not for this! I don't want this!"

She could feel her body begin to tremble as her body readied itself to phase, but she forced the wolf back down again.

"Leah, honey, please calm down. We're not trying to upset you, but we can't see any other reason why this imprint would have taken place. You clearly don't have any other feelings for Bella outside of the imprint, so it wouldn't make sense for this to be solely about her."

Leah fumed silently at her mother's words. Her fists were clenched and her teeth gritted but she tried to keep her anger under control.

"So what then?" she spat. "I'm just supposed to tell Jake that I'm stealing his girl, but that it's actually all okay, 'cause my wolf is willing to take him along for the ride too? Fuck that shit!"

"Leah," Billy tried to reason with her again. "Bella and Jake are not cruel people. I'm certain that both of them would understand that you didn't choose for the situation to be this way, and they wouldn't want you to suffer the pain of denying your imprint." Billy shuffled uncomfortably in his chair. "You have to understand that the pain and need you're feeling will only increase to unbearable levels and soon Bella will begin to feel the impact of it too."

Leah's anger waned abruptly at the mention of her imprint being in pain and she inwardly scowled at the reaction. Still, her body's automatic reaction was enough for her to unclench her fists, and the three council members all breathed a little easier when she did.

"I don't want that," she muttered quietly. "But I don't want this either." She looked to her tribe's chief. "You honestly can't tell me, Billy, that this is what you want for Jacob? He's happy with Bella. You know that. Everyone knows that. This is not the right thing for any of us."

Billy swallowed heavily but didn't deny what she had said.

It was left to Old Quil to provide the only objective voice in the room.

"You may not have a choice, Leah. Jacob and Bella may not have a choice. The magic of imprinting is both strong and binding. Sometimes we must all make difficult choices. Would you choose your beliefs over your sanity, your life?"

Leah shook her head at him and spun on her heel. She had almost reached the door when the old man's voice rang out behind her.

"Would you risk Bella?"

She froze, taking deep breaths to contain her shaking. She didn't turn around.

"Bella has Jacob. She'll be fine either way. She needs this imprint even less than I do."

She slammed the door open and stalked through the reservation back towards her home. She ignored her mother when she returned later that evening.

She didn't want this. Didn't want to be tied to Bella, didn't want to be destined for Jacob, didn't really want to be a wolf in the first place. Everything in her life in the last couple of years that had gone wrong had come about as a result of the pack and she was just bone-tired of making sacrifice after sacrifice for the sake of the reservation while all of her hope and dreams for the future were slowly crushed to pieces.

This fucked-up imprint was just one more thing stripping away the last vestiges of her free will. Leah was just so sick of it all.

This time she wasn't going the play the way the gods wanted her to.

She was going to fight this with everything she had.

A month went past. And then another.

The council heeded to her wish to keep their meeting confidential and nothing was mentioned about the issue to either Jacob or Bella, despite repeated attempts from both Billy and her mother to persuade Leah to tell them what was going on.

She began to get weaker, the strain of staying away from her imprint beginning to tell on her body. By the end of the third month, she could barely leave her room, she felt so weak. Any food she tried to eat didn't stay down for long and she spent most of her time fighting off the exhaustion that threatened to knock her unconscious at any moment.

Sue had finally had enough.

She had listened to Leah, understood where she was coming from on the imprinting issue, but she was not going to sit back and let her daughter kill herself with stubbornness. No matter what the end result, Leah needed her imprint, and from the look of Bella lately, her imprint needed Leah too.

Making the decision that her daughter couldn't, Sue left the house, determination in every step.

A day later, there was a hesitant knock at the door of Leah's bedroom.

"Go 'way, Seth," she croaked.

"It's not Seth." The door swung open to reveal a solemn Jake, followed by a nervous and sick looking Bella.

Leah's eyes ran over both of them, lingering a little longer on Bella, before dropping to the floor. "What do you two want?"

Jacob sighed heavily and Bella reached out to clasp his hand supportively.

"You mom came to visit us, Leah. She told us about the imprint."

Leah collapsed back on the bed and covered her face with her hands.

This was exactly what she hadn't wanted to happen, and yet she could already feel strength beginning to seep back into her body. The imprint had her effectively backed into a corner.

"Well, shit!"


End file.
